1761

epic ones, I need one complete for a lesser artifact, and I need another one for a divine artifact.

1762

I…have a turtle. A turtle overlord. And a secret.

1763

Farm the tombs in the ruins north of Medea’s Grove. That’s the best place in the game to get Spectral Matter.

1764

Welcome to the club. :)

The legendary items from there are amazing.

1765

So I killed a boss named “Beastman Archer #783,” and he dropped…

Heh.

1766

Yes, somewhere above Michael Fitch linked to the post that was inspired this letter… you’ll get another one of those letters in China. :)

Meanwhile: a complaint! I’ve made my first medium-quality artifact, and it doesn’t work! That is, I get some extra damage & resistance which does work, but the main benefit should be an extra skill that activates automatically on attacks, sending out ice shards or something. Except that it doesn’t. Do I have to use a normal attack instead of a Dream/Rogue mastery attack for this to work? That would suck.

Also, about the treasure of Hades. I hope the mini-bosses dropping the four orbs aren’t entirely random? I got the first one right in the monster camp behind the city of lost souls but finding the second one took forever.

1767

You won’t find the last key until you’re almost at the very end of the game. Don’t think they’re random though.

1768

Those skills that activate on attack only activate from time to time. I found the one on this mace I was using used to activate more when I cast spells then when I actually hit something. They don’t really explain it very well.

1769

Now I’ve seen it activate! I could swear it was only after I unequipped and re-equipped the artifact, though maybe it was just random luck. The artifact was called “Eye of the Heavens”, by the way, and its Tidal Wave is really quite impressive when it does activate. I think I’ll keep it.

In other news, this thread has recently passed 100,000 views!

1770

All 4 orbs are from predsignated mobs that will always be up in any given game and are not random spawns or drops. But it will be a while till you get all 4 they are spread out through the rest of the act.

1771

I made that artifact myself, and it’s very disappointing. It only activates about 2% of the time, which is something that’s NOT in the description but should be. After all, you have to destroy two lesser artifacts (and therefore a bunch of charms) to make it. I stuck it in storage and don’t use it anymore. I wish Michael would show up and comment on this. Hint hint.

1772

I finally got the expansion and made a dream character. I (stupidly) chose the psychic weapon attack. I can see how it would be useful later on in the game, but to start off with it’s just incredibly annoying because I have points dumped into something that only works once I’ve almost killed the monster anyway. I can get some extra utility out of it by charging up against one monster and then discharging against another, but that’s really click intensive and annoying. I have to click three, and only three, times on one monster, then retarget to blow the charge, then go back, etc.

Am I missing something here? Should I just hold out until I can respect those points at this point?

1773

Those points are what can make you or break you, mister. You damn well better start respecting them.

1774

I think the next tier of Dream mastery skills has a skill that adds an aoe attack to your phantom strike power, but the dream attack (disappear and reappear to attack) is one of Dream mastery’s strongest attacks.

1775

It really doesn’t come into its own until you get the AOE component. Then you can map it to right click and every so often just murder 5-6 people at once.

Psychic weapon is a great boss/hero killer, so I wouldn’t consider it a loss, but you may want to respec to the first AOE spell you can get, which in early levels is friggin huge (and, well, it’s pretty much the only thing I cast on the Typhon level, too…)

1776

Greetings:
I have been summoned. Was there something in particular you wanted me to comment on here? That the firing chance should be in the description?

Actually, I don’t think it’s the firing chance that’s the issue so much as the fact that the cooldown’s not visible. The artifact powers are kind of like the scroll powers: they’re big and flashy, but if you could spam them, they would make the game a complete cakewalk. The relatively long cooldowns are to stop that from happening while preserving the opportunity for Really Cool Things to happen once in a while. The problem is, since you don’t see the cooldown happening, you don’t know why it’s not firing.

But, if you’re picking one artifact over another for the proc skill, you’re not really making the most of them. The real power of the artifacts is the percentage modifiers, as these multipliers are what can put you into the stratospheric realm and make you competitive in Legendary.

Or was there some other reason you wanted me to drop by?

It is cool that the thread is over 100K views. It’s nice to know that enough people have had interest in the game to drive that. Not to go all Sally Field on you, but it’s nice to know that people like the game, they really like it.

Best,
Michael.

1777

Thanks for the prompt answer, Micheal. I think the cooldown time should be added to the text of the artifact to make it explicit–the text makes it seem like it will activate every time. The only reason I jumped through the hoops necessary to build the Eye of the Heavens (farming relics, etc.) was for the proc power, which turned out to fire too infrequently to be worth the effort. I switched to another with better full-time buffs instead.

1778

I’m one greater away from a divine just need a sub sub arti for it.

1779

Unlikely, but anyone have the Shroud of Eternal Night pattern or the artifact made? I have lots of patterns to trade, some early mid level blues, and a bunch of completed relics/monster parts.

1780

Sooo when will we see a gold pack?